Law / United States / 
North Dakota
SB 2380, age verification for sexual material harmful to minors (companion to HB 1561)
N.D. Cent. Code § 51-07-32 (created by 2025 S.B. 2380)
In force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to commercial entities that knowingly publish or distribute sexual material harmful to minors on a website where more than one third of the content meets that definition.
- Verify that visitors are 18 or older using a digitized identification card or a commercial age verification system relying on government-issued identification, a commercially available age and identity database, or transactional data.no control in the NIST Privacy Framework
- Do not retain identifying information after access is granted.NIST Privacy FrameworkCT.DM-P5
- You are not liable solely for providing access to third-party content if you are an internet service provider, search engine, cloud provider, or application store; the law does not require device makers, operating systems, or app stores to send age signals.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.DM-P5Data are destroyed according to policy.
- NIST CSF 2.0
- ID.AM-08Systems, hardware, software, services, and data are managed throughout their life cycles
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-DET-004AI System Observability
- AIR-DET-021Agent Decision Audit and Explainability
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework, and in the NIST Privacy Framework, line by line beside each duty above. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Penalties
Injunctions, compensatory and exemplary damages, costs and attorney fees, sought by a parent or guardian of a minor allowed access, or an individual whose identifying information was retained.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
None (private civil action only); no designated state enforcement agency
Settledness
The section is enforced through civil actions by a parent, guardian or affected individual, so no regulator construes it.
- As of
- Open questions
- Does "knowingly" in subsection 2 of the new section created by Senate Bill 2380 require that a commercial entity know the share of its website that is sexual material harmful to a minor, or only that it knowingly publishes or distributes the material?
- How is a "substantial portion" of "total material on a website" in subsection 2 of the new section created by Senate Bill 2380 measured for a site that mixes sexual material harmful to a minor with other content, by number of items, running time or page views?
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Commercial websites where more than one third of total material is sexual material harmful to a minor
Obligation class
Age verification, Retention
Verification methods
Digital ID, Gov ID, Third party service, Transactional data
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- "Substantial portion" means more than thirty-three and one-third percent of total material on a website is sexual material harmful to a minor.
What it makes you log
Log retention
- As of
- Basis
- Purpose bound
- Prohibits retaining
- Any identifying information of the individual, held by the commercial entity or by a third party that performs the age verification, after access has been granted to the material
Logging duty
The section requires reasonable age verification and bars keeping identifying information once access is granted. It names no log, record or proof of the check.
- Kind
- None
- As of
- Provision
- 2025 S.B. 2380, new section to N.D.C.C. ch. 51-07, subsections 2 and 3
What this law does
Substantially identical to companion bill HB 1561: commercial entities that knowingly publish or distribute sexual material harmful to minors on a website where more than one third of the content meets that definition must verify visitors are 18 or older using a digitized identification card or a commercial age verification system relying on government-issued identification, a commercially available age and identity database, or transactional data, and may not retain identifying information after access is granted.
As introduced, the bill would have required device makers, operating systems, and app stores to determine user age and transmit age signals, but the enrolled law dropped that mandate entirely and instead expressly provides that internet service providers, search engines, cloud providers, and application stores are not liable solely for providing access to third-party content. Enforcement is through private civil suits only.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .